They’re thrilled beyond spoken word

Flip through Billboard magazine and the pages are filled with the usual congratulatory ads for this year’s Grammy nominees, the smoking-hot stars of the recording industry: Eminem, Avril Lavigne, India.Arie -- and then another “For Your Consideration” ad jumps out. For a poet.

The half-page ad from Random House Audio features a color photo of Maya Angelou, one of five nominees for best spoken word album, a category that will get far less press than whoever wears the next swan get-up at the Grammys tonight. The award is likely to be given off camera, before CBS’ broadcast of the main event.

Of course, the belle of the ball is the U.S. recording industry, with roughly $13.7 billion in sales of mostly music albums, so the $2-billion-plus audio books industry is happy to be invited to the party, along with other sidelined hopefuls such as the nominees for best merengue album and best historical album. The Random House ad, in a music industry publication, is one indication of how seriously the staid publishing and audio books business considers a nomination -- not to mention the cool association, no matter how tangential, with the rock star world.

Random House’s online home page also mentions Angelou’s nomination, in the same breath as the publisher’s recent prestigious literary honors: a Whitbread Book of the Year, two Newbery Honor winners and nine nominees for the 2002 National Book Critics Circle Awards.

After nominations for Michael J. Fox and Christopher Reeve nominations were announced, Simon & Schuster Audio ordered “Grammy nominee” stickers for their audio books. In a telephone interview from his office in New York, Reeve said he was “really excited” by the nomination and for being included in “a very distinguished group” of nominees. Reeve was nominated for his audio version of “Nothing Is Impossible,” his book of essays and other reflections. In 1999, he won a spoken-word Grammy for his best-selling autobiography, “Still Me.”

He considers this year’s nomination a recognition of his book, his reading style and the fact that he is giving life to his own words. “I read it in a very conversational style, so I hope the listener feels we’re having a dialogue, that I’m sitting in the car next to them or in the living room, talking to them about my ideas,” Reeve said. “It’s a personal story, and you feel it’s being told to you.”

But, of course, he understands that the spoken-word nominees won’t get the kind of attention that the rock stars do. And, of course, he wouldn’t expect to be invited to give a reading on awards night, on the same bill as Bruce Springsteen and Norah Jones.

“I think the audience is really there for the music,” Reeve said. “And I think it would be pretty hard for an author to hold a whole audience at Madison Square Garden.” He’s thinking of attending the show, more as a fan, saying he probably will give in to his children, ages 23, 19 and 10. “I’m being bullied by my kids to go, certainly not in the hopes that I’m going to win but [they want] to see all the performers,” he said.

The spoken-word nominees tend to be political or entertainment industry celebrities. Literary figures, or the noncelebrity audio-book narrators who are tapped to read their works, rarely are recognized. This year’s nominees, for instance, are actor Tim Robbins for F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby,” and, besides Reeve, three authors who read their own memoir-ish books: Angelou for “A Song Flung Up to Heaven”; Fox for “Lucky Man”; and Robert Evans, the outrageous producer, for “The Kid Stays in the Picture.”

By comparison, the winners of the 2002 Audie Awards, given out by the Audio Publishers Assn., are largely unknown: among others, Frank Muller for “The Talisman” by Stephen King and Peter Straub; Dylan Baker for “The Corrections” by Jonathan Franzen; Nelson Runger for “John Adams” by David McCullough.

So, in the Grammys’ spoken-word category, does the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences recognize the best narrator? Or the best work? Or the best reading by the biggest name? The rules don’t specify the criteria.

On the final ballot, members are directed to vote in their fields of expertise; the academy does not track the number of potential voters in the spoken-word category, a spokeswoman said. The only guideline is: “for nonmusical drama recordings, narrations with or without musical collaboration or accompaniment, and instructional recordings.”

Lists of past nominees and winners have been dominated by famous names. Consider last year’s nominees: former President Jimmy Carter, Garrison Keillor, Carl Reiner, Quincy Jones (who won), and a joint reading by artists including Rob Lowe and Joan Allen.

“It seems to be the celebrity names, the Hollywood connection, names that are instantly recognizable,” said Eileen Hutton, president of the Manhattan Beach-based Audio Publishers Assn. But the nominees still reflect outstanding work, she added. “It’s still the skill of the narrator. That’s what is judged. It’s still the key and recognizing a good story well told.”

A big name can trump a skilled reader, said Rochelle O’Gorman, publisher and editor in chief of audiobookstoday.com, a Web site for fans of spoken-word recordings. “I take it seriously up to a point,” said O’Gorman, who emphasized that she was speaking for herself and not the audio books industry. “But if you look at [the nominations] over the years, it’s very splashy names ... there’s a lot of workhorse-type actors and narrators out there in the industry who I feel are being overlooked.”

Not that the winners, who have included Hillary Rodham Clinton, should be discounted, O’Gorman said. In 1997, then-First Lady Clinton won a spoken-word Grammy for her audio version of “It Takes a Village,” her book on child rearing. “She did a good job. But was it great? Were there better things that year? Of course.”

A sexy name isn’t enough to get a nomination, said Sherry Huber, executive producer of Angelou’s “A Song Flung Up to Heaven” and a vice president of Random House Audio. Brad Pitt, for instance, didn’t get a nomination for his reading of three Cormac McCarthy books in 1993 and 2000; neither did Julia Roberts for her 2002 audio recording of the bestselling book “The Nanny Diaries,” Huber pointed out.

In Angelou’s case, voters are recognizing her work and life story, along with her voice, Huber added. “I think it’s mostly the reader that’s being kind of adored or recognized or is beloved. She uses that incredible voice and just envelops them. She gives them the gift of her voice.”

And there’s no sense that a Grammy is beneath literary sensibilities? “Heavens no,” Huber said. “It’s tremendously important to us. This is the only [award] that reaches outside the community of people who are in that business. Of course, we’re not in the show.”